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The shift happened fast, but workplaces probably won’t ever look quite like they did before.
With organisations recognising the benefits of flexible working, and many employees finding they’re more productive, some changes are here to stay. Executives are planning for more remote workforces, while workers themselves are signaling they’ve got a taste for greater flexibility.
But what does the new workplace look like? And how should it factor into IT leaders’ considerations?
We’re working out how we should connect.
Work has always been a place where we connect. With a shared physical office no longer a blanket necessity, our technology has become the bedrock for that connection.
On a practical level, collaboration and communication tools are helping people stay connected no matter where they are or why they need to connect. They’re crucial for business continuity and teamwork outside the office, but they’re allowing people to reach out in more personal ways, too. Teams are coming together for yoga sessions, virtual coffees, even just supportive chats – all from their own homes. Technology isn’t just helping us work, it’s helping us look out for one another and preserve the cultures that make teams special.
On a broader level, technology is allowing us to tailor workplaces to the individual, intimate needs and circumstances that make us who we are. Everyone’s needs and lives are different, and our workspaces are starting to reflect that. Workspaces should reflect that if businesses want to foster the innovation, well-being and teamwork needed to keep moving forward.
That means the new workplace is a hybrid with a mix of preferences, locations, devices and environments. And it’s likely to look different for each business.
It’s complicated.
Businesses need to be expanding access to new tools and encouraging teams to adopt new processes to fit this hybrid workplace. But these shifts come with far more variety than any workplace of the past, accelerating IT challenges and opening new vulnerabilities.
There are simply more preferences, more tools, more endpoints and more vulnerabilities than ever before. Employees are less tethered to the security and simplicity of corporate networks, while the blurring of work and home lives means greater cross-pollination between devices and applications. And, as workforces acclimate to new approaches and competitors adapt, patience with clunky experiences or lagging speeds will start to wane.
IT decision-makers across Australia have moved fast to mobilise newly remote workforces. Reactive solutions are often vital in the short term but can create long-term issues like inefficiencies and security risks. These sorts of challenges were tough enough even before the intricacies of increasingly dispersed, hybrid workforces. To keep the new workplace moving forward, IT teams need streamlined, centralised solutions that help them handle growing complexity at scale.
We know change is hard, but it’s worth it
We understand that change can be hard. You’ve probably moved in record time to keep your teams connected and your business running. But, for both now and the future, IT strategies need to be anchored in the new workplace. That means finding better, faster tools, building better experiences, keeping more devices secure and consolidating systems into simplified, elegant solutions.
Telstra can help you ensure a seamless, secure experience, all while meeting diverse preferences at scale. From mobile plans that fit a variety of needs to an integrated suite of collaboration tools, we can help you choose and implement simple, succinct solutions to keep your business connected for the long haul. That includes the insights and change management tactics necessary to help changes stick.
